Tuesday, November 19, 2013

"The Three Faces Of Old"

This is about being old, and “playing old”, and writing old
– hence, the never-before used – maybe for a reason – title:

“The Three Faces Of Old.”

The inspiration for this post comes from my recently
attending a performance of Neil Simon’s The
Sunshine Boys, featuring Taxi
alumni Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch.(Did I go backstage and say hello?I did not.Why not?It’s not what I do.Why is it not what I do?“Hey, Earl, we’re in this play in front of
hundreds of people.What are you up to?”“I’m one of the hundreds of people.”Yeah, I’m an idiot.)

The Sunshine Boys,
Simon’s twelfth stage play (out of a total of thirty-four), originally
performed on Broadway in 1972, concerns Al Lewis and Willie Clark, an old-time
vaudeville team who, despite an acrimonious split eleven years earlier, agree,
(albeit reluctantly – they both consent to do it while “on the record”
remaining adamantly against doing it)
to reunite for one performance to recreate their iconic “The Doctor Will See
You Now” sketch, as part of a television tribute to “The History of Comedy.”

(Historical Note:Simon modeled this sketch after the classic “Doctor Krankheit” sketch
performed by the vaudeville comedy team Smith and Dale, although they, in real life, were actually good friends.Weber and Fields and Gallagher and Sheen, on
the other hand, not so much.And do not
ask me about Wayne and Shuster.)

Al Lewis is now retired and living with his daughter and her
family in New Jersey.Willie, remaining
in his (now seedy) Manhattan hotel suite which through subsequent subdivision
is now only one-fifth of the size it used to be, continues badgering his
agent/nephew to find him work, but, no longer comedically fashionable, and
unable to retain the name of the product during a rare commercial audition, the
one-time co-headliner of a once famous comedy duo has fallen on frustratingly hard
times.

The Sunshine Boys,
a theatrical relic about two theatrical relics (there are uncomfortable sexist
and racist elements in the show that must have been almost as jarring in the
seventies, even forgiving that the primary characters were from an earlier era still) is essentially a sketch about a
sketch.

The situation is a comedy writer’s dream.Simon is free to write joke­-infused dialogue, because the comedian-characters do jokes
for a living, so it is totally natural for them to express themselves that way
in everyday life.(The musical comparison would be having an opera singer bursting into song rather
than a construction worker.)

Before I talk further about the writing, I pause a moment to
discuss the acting, though not in the standard “theatrical reviewer”
fashion.DeVito and Hirsch are both
capable actors.DeVito embodies his
character more fully, Hirsch leaning more on caricature.But it’s a somewhat tricky assignment,
confronting both actors with a unique, and contemporary obstacle.

I’m thinking about my grandparents, who were, more of less,
chronologically contemporaneous with Lewis and Clark (the theatrical
characters, not the explorers.God, how
old do you think I am!)

Over the years, something has fundamentally changed about
“old.”The “old” of Lewis and Clark and
my grandparents involved a considerable amount of shuffling and sighing.Even a cursory observation would indicate
that “Old” is considerably younger
now.Though approximately the ages Lewis
and Clark would be (DeVito is sixty-eight, and Hirsch seventy-eight), the actors
nevertheless appear to be demonstrably too young for their parts.

There’s a hilarious set-piece in the show, where, working in
Willie’s apartment, the bickering former partners arrange the furniture, in
preparation for a rehearsal the “Doctor” sketch. Working in total silence, the audience looks
on as, no matter what one character does, the other character, oblivious to the
first character’s actions, changes it.Then, noticing something is “off”, the first character moves whatever
the other character moved back to what he considers to be the “right” position.
Then, noticing it’s “in the wrong place”,
the other character repositions the same item of furniture once again.

When done skillfully – and it was performed in First Class
fashion by Danny and Judd – what you are witnessing is a magical comedy ballet
(of precision and stubbornness.)

However, and this was astutely observed by the wife of the
couple we attended the show with, when the seventy-eight year-old Judd Hirsch
repositioned the table, he inappropriately “lifted it like it was a feather.”

That’s what I mean when I say that they are too young for
their parts.Over the passing recent
decades, “old” has become noticeably younger.But the play stayed the same.So now,
there is a perceptible “disconnect” between the actors and the characters, even
when, chronologically, the actors are the right age for the parts.

Would it be better if they had ninety year-olds playing the parts?I would not like to see that.The
answer is to find seventy year-old actors who don’t eat well and never go to
the gym.

You know what?This
is getting long, and my primary observation is yet to come.

The movie was originally supposed to star Jack Benny and Walter Matthau, but after Benny died, George Burns was cast, and it made him popular and bankable, and he went on to do movies like "Oh, God".

It is reported from Irving Fein's biography of Jack Benny, that when Benny was rehearsing for the part, he walked across stage and the director said, "Jack, slow down. You're supposed to be 80". Jack WAS 80 and he obviously walked with a youthful gait. So, sometimes you can act young when you're old.